Artist Statement

I have had a life long love affair with fabrics and fiber. I learned traditional needle arts from 3 generations of women in my family, and while they used their talents for necessity or hobbies, I have been fortunate to be able to expand on these basic skills and express myself as a fiber artist. I specialize in realistic and representational nature scenes. My inspiration begins with places I've seen, from girlhood vacations in upper Minnesota to trips around the US and beyond.

I manipulate traditional and non-traditional fabrics for depth and texture. I especially love working with batiks, silks, polyester, and light-weight upholstery. To these, I add sheers and netting to manipulate color and add layers to my art, which allows me to gain to depth of color necessary for me to paint pictures with fabric. I study photographs and employ continuous experimentation, refining construction techniques to capture details. Recently, I have begun to explore to possibility of creating three dimensional structures with fiber in order to increase the capacity, scale and realism of my work.

From close-up pieces that show fine detail, to panoramic vistas that display sweeping landscapes, my art illustrates my passion to take the precise color and textural elements found in nature and translate them into meaningful expressions of nature's beauty.